Danny Alexander has advised the BBC that he will be announcing, to the Liberal Democrat Party Conference, the recruitment of 2,000 more tax inspectors. Their role will apparently be to 'challenge' wealthy taxpayers who use accountants to avoid paying "their fair share".

He cited recent successes in specific campaigns such as the Tax Health Plan [ Recent? It closed in June 2010! - Ed ] as evidence that more resources allocated to this area would produce more tax yield, and there was an emphasis on taxpayers who are exposed to the 50% tax rate.

More will hopefully become clear in the speech itself but for now it seems that Mr. Alexander is determined to ensure that the 50% tax band does yield positive cashflows into the Treasury.

It should also be noted that he has not yet clarified whether or not these are new posts, or just a re-allocation of resource from the existing workforce at HM Revenue & Customs. Given the length of time it takes to train an Inspector in enquiry work, it would seem unlikely that HMRC is going to recruit externally, otherwise it would take too long to yield the results required for political purposes.

HM Revenue & Customs launched its "Mortgage Verification Scheme" on 1 September. This follows on from an announcement in the March 2010 Budget - Budget 2010 (see 3.86)

HMRC hasn't publicised the launch of the Scheme through the normal channels - here at TW, we haven't seen any Press Releases issued, or any announcements on its website.  In fact the only useful  reference to the "Income Verification Scheme" we could find was one paragraph under their 2010 Budget Announcement Tax Gap, Evasion and Fraud.

Interestingly, we could find no reference to it in HMRC's Information Disclosure Guidance Manual either.

But there have been press releases in the financial services industry, which focus on the main aim of the facility, which is to combat potential mortgage fraud. Mortgage lenders will now be able to check with HMRC that mortgage applicants' stated income levels tie in to those reported on tax returns.

Some of those press releases include the following, or similar:

'Colin Barclay, Assistant Director, HMRC Risk and Intelligence Service, said "HMRC are determined to tackle fraud wherever we can. The Mortgage Verification Scheme is an unprecedented opportunity for HMRC and lenders to work together to combat fraud in the mortgage industry."'

The Risk and Intelligence Service is the department that launched the Plumbers' Tax Safe Plan and the current VAT Campaign, and will be starting the campaigns for those who provide private tuition and coaching,  and next year e-commerce trading.

HMRC has confirmed that mortgage lenders will be providing that department with the income details included in mortgage applications, and that "this information will naturally feed in to" their risk assessment  processes.

Which is presumably why it isn't in their Information Disclosure Guidance Manual. (The facility for HMRC to disclose information to a third party - with the taxpayer's permission - has been around for many years). HMRC isn't disclosing the income information to the lender for verification purposes. Instead, the lender is providing the income information to HMRC for checking.

Whilst mortgage lenders will understandably be concerned to ensure that lending is based on accurate income details, HMRC will of course be keen to investigate any apparent discrepancies between stated income levels for mortgage applications and those reported for tax purposes.

Now why wasn't that publicised?